Darina Allen: Recipes to make with your hard-earned GIY vegetables

Click here to view original web page at www.irishexaminer.com

David Tanis’s Summer Garden Salad I’ve just returned from the hugely inspirational Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Festival in the UK. This was my second attempt to get to this event which is held on Lanark Manor Farm near Weston in Hertfordshire. Last year I got as far as London, but […]

Click here to view original web page at www.irishexaminer.com


Darina Allen: Recipes to make with your hard-earned GIY vegetables

David Tanis’s Summer Garden Salad

I’ve just returned from the hugely inspirational Groundswell Regenerative Agricultural Festival in the UK.

This was my second attempt to get to this event which is held on Lanark Manor Farm near Weston in Hertfordshire.

Last year I got as far as London, but a sudden train strike prevented me from getting to the festival. Since the initial Groundswell eight years ago, there has been an explosion of interest in regenerative farming and food systems change.

Originally 400 farmers gathered in the Barn to share ideas in an open minded and positive setting. This year over 5,000 turned up to explore regenerative solutions that subsequent generations will thank us for.

It was a packed program with over 200 speakers including Joel Williams, Nicole Masters, Zach Bush, Anne Bilké, Richards Perkins… most talks were recorded and will be available on Groundswell’s YouTube channel, so you too, can listen to many of the presentations. Gatherings like this stimulate mindset change and innovation at this challenging time.

If you’re one of the happy gardeners who planted a few packets of seeds in spring to grow some of your own food, you’re probably overwhelmed with an abundance of beautiful chemical-free produce at present.

There are not even enough meal slots to enjoy all the fresh vegetables. The first tomatoes and cucumbers have ripened in the greenhouse. We’ve had beets and courgettes for several weeks now. The first of the French beans are dangling temptingly from the bean stalks. Chilies are coming fast, floury potatoes, tons of salad leaves and voluptuous basil to make pesto and to toss into salads and pasta dishes. So much work has gone into growing, I can’t bear to waste a scrap, but everything seems to peak together.

We picked some super ripe loganberries and tayberries in the aptly named Currant and Berry Garden recently… such a treat.

After we’d enjoyed a simple little feast with a dollop of Jersey cream and a sprinkling of caster sugar, I made the remaining berries into jam.

The recipe works brilliantly for raspberries too and even though I’ve been making jam since I was a child, I still relish a glow of satisfaction as I line up the jars of my very own homemade jam on the shelves in the pantry, I always think of them as good deeds to admire.

Purely by coincidence, a copy of ‘The Greens Cookbook’, arrived in the post this week.

A Grub Street reprint of Deborah Madison‘s original book that created a revolution in cooking when it first appeared over 35 years ago.

It’s now regarded as a classic and here in this handsome new addition are the recipes that helped to create the boldly original and highly successful Greens Restaurant on San Francisco Bay where I vividly remember eating in the 1980s.

Basil Pesto

recipe by:Darina Allen

Homemade pesto takes minutes to make and tastes a million times better than most of what you can buy. Makes two 200ml jars.

Basil Pesto
Total Time

Preparation Time

15 mins

15 mins

Course

Side

Cuisine

Italian

Ingredients

  • 110g fresh basil leaves

  • 175-225ml extra virgin olive oil

  • 25g cashews or fresh pine nuts (taste when you buy to make sure they are not rancid), chopped

  • 2 large garlic cloves, crushed

  • 50g finely grated Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano is best)

  • sea salt, to taste

Method

  1. Whizz the basil with the olive oil, chopped cashews or pine nuts and garlic in a food processor or pound in a pestle and mortar. Remove to a bowl and fold in the Parmesan cheese. Season to taste.

  2. Pesto keeps for weeks, covered with a layer of olive oil in a jar in the fridge. It also freezes well but for best results don’t add the grated Parmesan until it has defrosted. Freeze in small jars or containers for convenience.

Raspberry Jam

recipe by:Darina Allen

Raspberry jam is the easiest and quickest of all jams to make, and one of the most delicious. Loganberries, boysenberries or tayberries may also be used in this recipe. Makes three 450g pots.

Preparation Time

15 mins

Cooking Time

20 mins

Total Time

35 mins

Course

Dessert

Ingredients

  • 900g fresh raspberries, tayberries or loganberries or a mixture

  • 790g granulated sugar

Method

  1. Wash, dry and sterilise the jars in the oven 100°C for 15 minutes.

  2. Heat the sugar in a moderate oven 180°C for 5-10 minutes.

  3. Put the raspberries into a wide stainless steel saucepan and cook for 3-4 minutes until the juice begins to run, then add the hot sugar and stir over a gentle heat until fully dissolved. Increase the heat and boil steadily for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

  4. Test for a set by putting about a teaspoon of jam on a cold plate, leaving it for a few minutes in a cool place. It should wrinkle when pressed with a finger. Remove from the heat immediately. Skim and pour into sterilised jam jars. Cover immediately.

  5. Hide the jam in a cool place or else put it on a shelf in your kitchen so you can feel great every time you look at it! Anyway, it will be so delicious it won't last long!

  6. Note: If the jam overcooks, it will be too thick - just add a little boiling water to loosen.

David Tanis’s Summer Garden Salad

Some salads are tossed, while others, like this one, are composed. Feel free to improvise here: A few spinach leaves, watercress, a handful of raw sweet garden peas or fava beans, asparagus or thinly sliced raw artichoke can be nice additions.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

20 mins

Total Time

20 mins

Course

Side

Ingredients

  • For the Vinaigrette:

  • 1 small shallot, finely diced

  • salt and black pepper

  • 50ml lemon juice plus 1 tsp zest

  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard

  • 5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

  • For the Salad:

  • 3 medium red or gold beets, cooked and cut into wedges (see Tip)

  • salt and black pepper

  • ribbons of peeled carrots

  • 4 handfuls salad greens, preferably a mix of arugula and lettuce, such as Little Gem or Red Oak

  • 5cm piece daikon radish, or 1 medium watermelon radish, peeled and very thinly sliced

  • 1 bunch small radishes or baby turnips, trimmed and halved

  • 1 medium fennel bulb, cored and thinly sliced

  • 4 eggs, boiled for 7-8 minutes, then cooled, peeled and halved

  • 50g fresh mixed herbs, such as sprigs of tarragon, basil, mint, dill or chervil

  • Nasturtium or Calendula blossoms, for serving (optional)

Method

  1. Make the vinaigrette: Put the shallot in a small bowl, and add a pinch of salt, the lemon juice, zest, and mustard. Whisk until the salt dissolves, then whisk in the olive oil. Taste, and add more salt and pepper to taste.

  2. Start preparing the salad: Put beet wedges in a small bowl, season with salt and pepper, and toss with 1 ½ tablespoons vinaigrette. Set aside.

  3. Put the salad leaves in a large mixing bowl, salt very lightly and dress with ¾ tablespoon vinaigrette. Divide among individual plates or arrange on a platter. Scatter the beets, carrot ribbons, radishes and fennel over the leaves. Arrange the egg halves over the top. Season the eggs with salt and pepper.

  4. Top with the herbs and blossoms, if using. Drizzle the remaining vinaigrette over the salad and serve.

  5. Tip: To cook beets, place in a roasting pan with 2.5cm of water, tightly cover with foil and bake at 190°C until tender, about 1 hour. Once cool enough to handle but still warm, slip the skins off the beets. Peeled beets will keep refrigerated for up to a week.

Summer Fruit Salad with Sweet Geranium Leaves

recipe by:Darina Allen

I discovered this recipe which has now become a perennial favourite quite by accident a few Summers ago as I raced to make a pudding in a hurry with the ingredients I had at that moment.

Preparation Time

15 mins

Total Time

15 mins

Course

Dessert

Ingredients

  • 110g raspberries

  • 110g loganberries

  • 110g redcurrants

  • 110g blackcurrants

  • 110g small Strawberries

  • 110g blueberries

  • 110g fraises du bois or wild strawberries

  • 110g blackberries

  • Syrup:

  • 325g sugar

  • 450ml water

  • 6-8 large sweet geranium leaves

Method

  1. Put all the freshly picked berries into a white China or glass bowl. Put the sugar, water and sweet geranium leaves into a stainless steel saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for just 2 minutes.

  2. Cool for 4-5 minutes then pour the hot syrup over the fruit and allow to macerate for several hours. Remove the geranium leaves. Serve chilled, with softly whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream or on its own. Garnish with a few fresh sweet geranium leaves.

Hot Tips

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